Beer
First I remember is a shot of gin. Fiery Christmas water.
A half pint of Smithwick’s in The Long Dock in Carrigaholt, Co. Clare, Ireland, in the late 90s. I was 14. It was glory in a glass.
7 or 8 shots of vodka on my 15th birthday. I was pretty sure the hangover was going to kill me…
I had a sip of beer or wine here or there as a kid, but my first “real” drink was shitty vodka mixed with grape juice. Tasted like cough syrup. I was 18, very depressed, hanging out with friends, and up to make poor decisions.
Later that night I had one mouthful of “Natural Ice” and poured the rest down the sink at some house party we managed to wander into. Don’t know how something can taste like skunk and watered down piss at once, but they made it happen.
Shocked I drank much at all after that mess of a night. Now I know that I have a recessive genetic liver condition, so no more booze for me, outside of small sips of whatever new craft beer the wife has found.
probably midori
I was like 8 or 9 and my family was on a weekend trip up the St John’s River on our neighbor’s cabin cruiser, I got to try a sip of the neighbor’s strawberry daiquiri before she made a virgin one for me.
Seems like I’m the odd one actually enjoying my first taste of alcohol. Fortunately I never became a heavy drinker even if I did develop a wider taste in alcohol as an adult.
Don’t remember the very first. However, I got totally drunk from draft beer at a campground clambake. My mother and a camp worker had to load me into a golf cart to get me back to our site. I was about 15-16 y/o.
Last drops in beer bottles handed to me by my parents. Couple of years after that I was allowed proper glasses of table beer during festivities. All this before I was 12.
Wine mixed with gassosa (basically a mildly lemony soda) my grandpa had on sundays. My grandpa tended to drink pretty sweet wine. So mixed with gassosa it tasted really good even as a kid.
My neck of the woods is somewhat lax about alcohol in family situations. Kids were usually allowed to taste so they would get used to the taste of alcohol for the future.
Whatever the drunk RVers left for us in their coolers.
A can of Tennants lager in Scotland in the 70s, given to me by my maternal grandfather. Probably about 3.2% or 3.6% abv. Tennants cans had a picture of an attractive girl in a swimsuit on every can. A four pack would have four different girls. The one on my first can was called Isabel.
First alcohol in a pub was from my paternal grandfather. I was fourteen. Grandpa ordered two pints of bitter. The barman asked him how old I was. “Eighteen. Scrawny little bugger in’t he?”
Rum & cola, when I was 17, I think. The next was Stock 84 the same year.
Wine. Red wine.
I was still a little kid and tasted it from my granddad’s glass, just a sip. I begged to be allowed to taste it, as I wanted to do like all the grown ups were doing. I hated the taste. That changed as I grew older.
Nowadays, approx the same age my granddad was back then, I don’t drink wine anymore but I certainly don’t hate the taste ;)
Margarita; friends bought it for me on my 21st birthday.
